We live in a world that is way more technologically advanced and business oriented than ever before and I think that sometimes it gets taken for granted that not everyone is savvy on the technical side of all of these advances. Basically, we live in a world that used too much jargon. We are constantly told that we should not use jargon unless there is absolutely no other option.

I was scanning articles on the Kansas City Star‘s website and saw one about how Sprint is getting the iPhone on their network. My dad has been hounding my mom and I to switch from T-Mobile to Sprint because it is cheaper. (My uncle works for them so we’d get a huge discount.) I’ve always kinda wanted an iPhone, because they’re just the thing to have. So I clicked on the article. It started out simple enough: Everyone wants an iPhone, it makes sense to offer it, first to offer it with flat rate unlimited data. There was a bit explaining the benefit of unlimited data, and then they hit the reader with:

“In the first quarter, Android smartphone owners in the U.S. consumed an average of 582 megabytes of data each month, compared with 492 megabytes for iPhone owners, according to Nielsen Co.’s analysis of nearly 65,000 cell-phone bills.”

Now I can pretty much understand what they’re saying: Cell phone users using an Android phone used their mobile internet more than those with an iPhone. So why couldn’t they have said that? I can understand it but I can pretty much guarantee that neither of my parents would.

I looked around at other articles and found similar things. In an article about government spending, the author said “The government’s persistent outsized deficits only make it harder for consumers and businesses to resume their roles as economic engines.” Is it really necessary to make it sound so complicated?

I think that what companies and journalist need to really look at and think about is keeping what they say at a level that the majority the public will be able to easily understand what is being said. If a company is to technical in the way to present information to the public it could come off as arrogant and that is never good for PR.